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MAJOR NOAH K FERRY. 

5'^ MICHIGAN CAV. 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE 



ON 



OCCASION OF THE DEATH 



OP 



NOAH HENRY FERRY, 

1 

aiAJOR OF THE FIFTH MICHIGAN CAVALRY, 

KILLED AT GETTYSBURG, JULY 3, 1863. 



KEY. DAVID M. COOPER, 

PASTOR OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, GRAND HAVEN, MICH. 



PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST. 



NEW YORK : 

JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 50 GREEKE STREET. 

1863. 



.1 



" Pity not me ; I die as a man of honor should die, in the discharge 
of my duty ; they are indeed objects of pity iclio fight against their Icing, 
their country, and their oath.'''' 

The Chevalier Bayahd to the perfidious Bourbon. 

3 r. y 



IK-TEODTJOTOEY. 



The services connected with the interment of the 
remains of the late Major Noah H. Ferry, were held in 
the Presbyterian Church, Saturday, July 18, 1863. 

The exercises commenced with the following chant by 
the Choir : 

1. With silence only as their benediction, God's angels come : 
"When in the shadow of a great affliction the soul sits dumb. 

2. Yet, would we say what every heart approveth — our Father's will. 
Calling to him the dear ones whom he loveth, is mercy still. 

3. Not upon us, or ours, the solemn angel hath evil wrought: 
The funeral anthem is a glad evangel — the good die not. 

4. God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly what he has given : 
They live on earth in thought and deed, as truly as in his heaven. 

The following selections of Scripture were then read : 

"Behold the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jeru- 
salem, and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, 
and the whole stay of water, the mighty man, and the man of war, the 
judge, and the proj^het, and the prudent, and the ancient, the cajjtain of 
fifty, and the honorable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning 
artificer, and the eloquent orator. They are exalted for a little while, 
but are gone and brought low ; they are taken out of the way as all 
other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. 

" And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him. 



4 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

Kend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before 
Abner. And King David himself followed the bier. And they buried 
Abner in Hebron ; and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the 
grave of Abner ; and all the people wept. And the king lamented over 
Abner. 

"And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over 
Jonathan his son : The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places. 
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle ! How are the 
mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished ! 

" And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah : and Jeremiah 
lamented for Josiah : and all the singing men and the singing women 
spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an 
ordinance in Israel." 

After prayer tlie following hymn was sung — a hymn 
which, the Major handed to his brother, T. W. Ferry, 
recently on a visit to his command near Fairfax, Va., with 
a request that the choir, of which he had been so many 
years a member, should learn it : 

" Sweet day ! so cool, so calm, so bright. 
Bridal of earth and sky ; 
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night, 
For thou, alas ! must die, 
For thou, alas ! must die. 

" Sweet rose! in air whose odors wave. 

And color charms the eye ; 

The root is even in the ground. 

And thou, alas ! must die, 

And thou, alas ! must die. 

" Sweet spring! of days and roses made : 
"Whose charms for beauty vie : 
Thy days depart, thy roses fade. 
Thou too, alas ! must die. 
Thou too, alas ! must die. 

" Only a sweet and holy soul 
Hath tints that never fly ; 
"While flowers decay, and seasons roll, 
It lives, and cannot die, 
It lives, and cannot die." 



DISCOURSE. 



" Unfurl our flag half mast to-day, 
In sorrow 'mid the clang of war ; 
Each crimson stripe is turned to gray, 
To black — each azure star." 

Fellow Citizens : — 

There is unfeigned grief in this assemblage to-day. 
No one of us has been drawn hither, stirred by an idle 
curiosity to behold a funeral pageant. Not an individ- 
ual has been borne within these hallowed precincts, upon 
the swelling tide of public sorrow, and sits an unmoved 
spectator of these sad obsequies. No ! no ! Every 
bosom heaves with emotion. Every eye is moistened 
by a tear. Every heart is burdened with grief. As with 
one mind we bend over the remains of the honored dead ; 
and give vent to overwhelming sorrow at om' own, and 
our country's loss. 

Many such scenes, alas ! have been witnessed in our 
countiy since the outbreak of this unhallowed rebel- 
lion — many such assemblages have been convened — 



6 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

many such heroes have fallen. To-day Missouri laments 
her bold and chivahous Lyon. Massachusetts sheds 
anew her tears at every recollection of her scholarly and 
polished Winthrop. Oregon mourns her martyred 
Baker ; the patriotic thrill of whose eloquence the coun- 
try still feels through every fibre of her being. Illinois 
refuseth to be comforted because her Ellsworth is not. 
The turf has scarcely grown green over the grave of 
Richardson, the brave, Fairbanks, the fearless — • 
Michigan's sacrifices upon the altar of liberty. Not for- 
getting to mention, would we complete the roll of honor, 
the shining names of Williams, Whipple, Speed, 
Wendel, Judd, and though last named, the earliest in 
the field, and as gallant and brave as any, Roberts, 
whose bones now lie bleaching on recreant Virginia's 
soil — Roberts, the generous, opened-hearted, who was 
first to spring to arms at his country's call ; whose self- 
sacrificing devotion has never been suflBciently appreciated 
— whose praises are yet to be sung. 

And now it becomes our part to add to this golden 
hst of heroes who have obtained a good report — of whom, 
as we discover the smothered fires of disloyalty breaking 
out into open rebellion upon Northern soil, we are 
tempted in our impatience to say this generation is not 
worthy — the name of Ferry ; our contribution to free- 
dom's galaxy, the jewel which we this day, with our 
own hands, set in our country's diadem, sparkling with 
a brilliancy eclipsed by none. He may have been ex- 
celled in that wisdom which is the result alone of age 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 7 

and experience, as by a Baker — sm-passed by others, 
as by a Winthrop, in literary attainments, to which he 
made no pretensions ; while yet possessed of a vigorous 
intellect : for aiight I know, greater personal sacrifices 
may have been made, though it is difficult to see how 
this can be ; but in all that goes to make up the sterling 
patriot, the true soldier, the devoted son and brother, 
the steadfast friend, he had no superior among them. 
And, I may add, over no manlier form has the tear of 
love and pity dropped. It was in Detroit that I saw 
him, for the last time, when he called to pass a social 
hour at my father's house ; and I vividly recall the 
emotion of pride with which I gazed upon that coun- 
tenance so open, so frank, and that form so erect, sym- 
metrical, and marked by that peculiar grace and dignity 
of bearing which military discipline alone can impart — 
pride, I say, not only because in him there was " the 
true knightly embodiment of war," but because I saw 
likewise embodied the patriotic spirit of our town. 

Nor am I at all forgetful here of Wright, whose 
marble shaft in yonder cemetery reminds us of the 
bloody field of Shiloh ; nor of those present with us 
to-day who have nobly braved the storm of battle 
— the gallant Hunting, and our wounded Albee ; 
nor yet again of others, dear to us, still out upon 
the tented field. May the Lord God of Hosts cover 
their heads in the hour of danger ! And while I 
thus speak, the echoing conviction of every heart 
omono; you, my fellow citizens, at once relieves me 



8 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

from the imputation of dealing in fulsome eulogy. 
Cheerfully allowing to others their full meed of praise, 
we all unite in saying we would not exchange our hero 
for any of them. 

. Noah Henry Ferry, whose remains now lie before 
us, was born on the island of Mackinaw, the 30th day 
of April, 1831. In the fom-th year of his age his par- 
ents removed to Grand Haven, where they have con- 
tinued since to reside. Of his childhood and youth we 
shall say nothing. With that period you, his acquain- 
tances and neighbors, are familiar. We hasten on then 
to consider that which more immediately concerns us at 
present, viz. : his brief but higlily creditable mihtary 
career. 

Partaking, as we aU did, in that glow of patriotic 
fervor kindled by the bombardment of Port Sumter, he 
began to ponder seriously the matter of personal respon- 
sibility in reference to the momentous crisis. His coun- 
try was in peril. Her very existence was at stake. She 
called aloud for defenders. Why should not he hasten 
to her rescue ? He felt himself willing. He stood 
ready. Nor did the decision of the question hinge upon 
the accident of rank or promotion. The matter present- 
ed itself to him solely as one of duty ; and upon that 
ground was'^decided. Shoulder straps were no tempta- 
tion to him. He would go as a private, if need be. He 
only asked to be placed in the best possible position for 
an effective blow at the hydra-headed monster. At this 
juncture he received an offer of a commission in the 3d 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 9 

Michigan Cavalry, then forming at Grand Rapids. This 
was in the summer of 1861. As speedily as possible he 
closed up his business and reported himself for duty as 
adjutant. But, for causes that are not here necessary to 
state, he found, upon his arrival at Grand Rapids, the posi- 
tion already filled. This circumstance, together with the 
fact, that the exigencies of the Government were now 
less pressing, led him to abandon, for a time, his purpose 
of engaging actively in mihtary duty. In the ensuing 
summer, however, finding that a number of men resident 
at and near White River — the centre of his business — 
were anxious to respond to their country's call; and that 
they were persistent in the wish that he should go with 
them, the question of duty presented itself again, and 
under new and pecidiar circumstances. Though sub- 
ject to some dissuasive influences, he decided to go ; and 
at a war meeting held in the Public Hall, on Monday 
evening, he announced such to be his determination. 
And inasmuch as, in many cases, ofiicers who were 
prominent in mustering companies had been known to 
decline going themselves ; he, with a nobleness- and 
frankness characteristic of the man, in company with E. 
C. Dicey, then his lieutenant, but now captain of a com- 
pany of sharpshooters, came forward and were sworn in 
for three years or during the war. The result was that 
82 men that evening entered into the United States ser- 
vice. The following day the company was completed — 
an instance hardly paralleled in the history of, the war ; a 
full company of 102 men ready for service within 24 



10 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

lioui's from the time tlie first man enlisted! A suc- 
cess that must be attributed largely to his personal pop- 
ularity in that region — a popularity still further evinced 
by the sympathizing presence here to-day of so large a 
representation of his friends, neighbors, and former 
business associates from the vicinity of White River. 

His commission, as captain of Co. F. 5th Michigan 
Cavahy, dates Aug. 14, 1862. Not a year has elapsed 
since that date, and yet during his few brief months of 
service, he rose to the position of major of the regiment. 
We, who were acquainted with the solid, soldierly qual- 
ities he possessed, were not at all sui'prised at his rapid 
promotion. It was just what we expected, and we were 
confidently looking for a still higher ascent, when his 
untimely death disappointed all our hopes. 

It was late last fall before the regiment left Detroit 
for the seat of war, in which city, as we know, he 
attracted to himself, by his sterling worth and manly 
bearing, many devoted friends, Avho mom'n his loss with 
a poignancy of grief only exceeded in degree by those of 
us to whom he stood in nearer and more tender rela- 
tions. Until very recently the corps with which he 
was connected lay comparatively inactive within the im- 
mediate vicinity of Washington. But such a life, as we 
shall soon see, was little suited to his stirring, active 
nature, and he was restive under it. There is only one 
mcident that transpued during this period, which re- 
quires any particular notice at our hands. I refer to 
the afl'air of Ashby's Gap. With the main facts of the 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 11 

case you are all more or less familiar. But, I confess, 
not until when yesterday the written details were placed 
in my hands for inspection, did I fully realize the emer- 
gency and the intrepidity of soul that met it. Had the 
transaction occurred on a broader theatre ; had it been 
the fate of the Army of the Potomac, or our country's 
weal that trembled in the balance, instead of the fate of 
a few hundred men composing a fragment of that army, 
the deed would have called forth the plaudits of the 
nation, and by common consent the world would have 
sung pgeans to his praise. 

But though the theatre of action was circumscribed 
and the deed itself wrapt in comparative obscurity, yet 
the elements of character displayed by its hero were 
precisely such as gave to Andrew Jackson his place of 
imperishable renown upon the page of history. Like 
the hero of New Orleans he assumed the responsibility ; 
and, in doing it, placed in jeopardy at once his position, 
his reputation, his very life, his all ; and this, too, actu- 
ated by no petty ambition, by no morbid craving for 
ephemeral distinction, by no reckless disregard for con- 
stituted authority — ^but solely, and from the necessity of 
the case, by the purest and most patriotic motives. And 
that the spectacle might not be wanting in moral sub- 
limity, without which no action is truly great, we point 
to the magnanimity he displayed in refusing to profit by 
a brother soldier's failing. Let us imitate that mag- 
nanimity and refuse to drag forth into the light of day 
details which would only reflect painfully upon the 



12 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

living, without any corresponding benefit to us, or to 
the quiet sleeper who has sealed his patriotism with his 
blood. Let it suffice to add, in this connection, the tes- 
timony of a citizen of Washington, contained in a letter 
to one of the family, after the preferred charges lodged 
by Major Terry against his superior officer had been, at 
the earnest solicitation of that officer's friends, with- 
drawn, and the matter adjusted. " Your brother," says 
the writer, " was the salvation of the regiment, and by 
his firmness and determination has won unmeasured 
praise from not a few high in office," 

We have lying before us, as we write, letters from 
the deceased, ranging in date from November 29, 1862, 
to July 1, 1863. Want of time prevents our inter- 
weaving extracts from these into the narrative, as we 
should like to do. We therefore give you the extracts 
themselves, taken from the letters in the order of their 
date, without any particular regard to connection of 
thought. 

In a letter written to his pastor, dated Camp Cope- 
land, East Capitol Hill, Washington, D. C, February 
18, 1863, he says: "1 have not forgotten our good- 
by," — refening to our last private interview in[ yonder 
study, when we kneeled together in prayer, — "you have 
my thoughts more often than you think. They fre- 
quently stray ofi" to the old church and hover around 
you and the members of the choir upon a Sabbath 
day." After indulging in a little pleasantry, he con- 
cludes the letter as follows : " We left Washington in 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 13 

mud; I, in perfect astonishment that an expedition 
should be ordered out into the sacred soil, after such 
weather, thinking nothing else than that we should have 
to swim most of the way. We found the finest of roads ; 
travelled with a light train forty miles a day ; and for a 
while I was at a loss to account for the Virginia mud, 
written by army correspondents last winter. I found it 
at last. 'Tis visible in cut-glass decanters and old junk 
bottles ; but only becomes a clog to the movements of 
an army when hid from view in a cask of flesh and 
blood, tastefully wrapped up in blue coat and brass but- 
tons. Excuse this rambling letter. It is a good deal 
like me — needs trimming." 

In another letter to me, March 6, 1863, and sub- 
sequently in communications to others, he animadverts 
in terms of becoming severity upon drunkenness in high 
places. On April 6, 1863, he writes from camp, near 
Fairfax C. H., in allusion to an abortive attempt on the 
part of his brigade to intercept the rebel cavalry under 
Moseby, the result, as he thinks, of inexcusable delay. 
" Had I been on trial in Michigan for whipping a lame 
idiot and stealing his diimer, I should not have been 
more mortified and ashamed than I was coming home 
yesterday. I have proposed to take one hundred men, 
if they would let me pick them, and take my own time, 
go out and not return until I had captured or killed 
Moseby and his whole gang. But that wouldn't be 
military and could not be allowed." From the same 
camp, under date of May 9, just after the battle of 



• 

14 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 



Chancellorsville, he writes : " Oh, I wish I could have 
been in command of this regiment, and where the ad- 
vance of Stoneman's force was on Sunday night. I 
would have burned Libby prison, or left my head inside 
the fortifications of Richmond. * * * * Oh ! it is ag- 
gravating to think what might have been done and 
was not. Draw our regiment up in line within sight 
of the lights of Richmond — tell them the road was 
open, though full of dangers — tell them that perhaps 
not one in ten would get inside the city — aye, not even 
one in fifty — that all that did not want to make the 
attempt might turn and join the main body, but that 
the rest of us were going to penetrate to the heart of 
Richmond and burn that Libby prison, or leave om' 
bodies on the road. Where is the man, claiming a 
home in Michit/an, who would quail, or offer a remon- 
strance ? Every hat would be in air, and all they would 
ask would be, Give us the order to move." These 
two last extracts disclose to us, not a soul ambitious of 
military eclat — for all this while, as confidential letters 
to his younger brother (eager himself to join in the 
fray) show, he was longing to return to the quiet pur- 
suits of business life. " Why, Ned," he writes, " when I 
read of your work at home and hear you talk of discon- 
tent, because you are not doing more for your country, 
I feel guilty in staying here. You are doing manifold 
more than I am. Your place cannot be vacated without 
being felt by very many, while mine would hardly be 
missed," — but they rather disclose a soul burning with 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 15 

an irrepressible desire for some decisive blow struck 
that would end the rebellion and restore peace and 
security to his beloved country — a soul almost fretfully 
impatient at the failure of projects which, it seemed to 
him, only needed a resolute will to accomplish. Al- 
though he himself strongly suspects that his " father 
will laugh at such language as the enthusiasm of a boy," 
yet it wiU not do for any here present, with the record of 
his enterprising, energetic hfe and valiant death lying 
as it does before us, to say that it is the vaunting of a 
braggart — of one mighty in words, but w^ak in execu- 
tion. "From the blood of the slain — from the fat of 
the mighty, his bow turned not back, nor did his sword 
return empty." 

In a letter, under date May 17, 1863, " On picket 
near Fairfax Court House," written to his brother, he 
says — an illustration of his restiveness under inaction, to 
which we have alluded — " We are still at this inglorious 
duty ; but as long as we are doing sometJmi(/, I will not 
complain. We get a shot once in a while at a ' Reb,' 
and sometimes get shot at ; but with two or three excep- 
tions the bullets did not find their billets." Again : 
" I feel guilty all the time that we are not doing more ; 
but it will not answer for me to do anything else than 
suggest." And then follows a criticism upon miUtary 
affairs, prompted, as we know, by no carping or envious 
spirit, but from a real regard for the best interests of his 
countiy. He had sacrificed all for this glorious end. 
Why should he not expect to find in others the same un- 



16 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

selfish devotion. "A system," he says, "that would 
give good officers to United States citizens, would place 
our country where she could defy the powers of earth. 
Por troops, that could save a country from utter dis- 
grace, with such officers as some they have been and 
are cursed with here, need no vast outlay of time and 
money in military organizations. This rebellion has 
fully proved that." And again, in another place : " I 
feel ashamed to write so much in the spirit of complaint 
and criticism of the management of affairs about me : but 
one sees enough here to take all the patriotism out of him. 
It is trying to see good men and true, who are anxious 
to do good service in their country's cause, doomed to 
inactivity or useless labors. And then, when the con- 
duct of officers is so glaring as to be commented upon 
by the people at large — instead of being hanged, shot, or 
even dismissed from service — iltey arepermittedto resign^ 

In a letter, dated Cavalry Outpost, June 11, 1863, 
addressed to his mother, and full of fraternal as well as 
filial aff'ection, he alludes to his " first brush " with the 
enemy that morning at daylight, and at its close says : 
" When I go out again and see the enemy, you may rest 
assured that I will give a good account of myself. I 
have been under fire now, and know just how I shall 
feel. I was in some uncertainty before." 

At Frederick City, Md., June 26, 1863, he writes: 
" Dear Brother, — we are encamped in a field of clover, 
a mile or so west of the city. * * * Our regiment 
is well received everywhere. At Freedom HiU and at 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 17 

Fairfax the neighbors actually cried when we broke 
camp — said that they had seen a power of troops, but 
the Michigan 5th were different from all others." * * 
* " Col. Alger does well, and shows more ability than 
I at first gave him credit for — I like him more and 
more every day." 

Sunday, June 28th, about the time, you will recol- 
lect, that Gen. Meade assumed command of the army 
and began to move northward, he ™tes from Gettys- 
bm-g : " We are with part of our brigade in the State 
of Pennsylvania.- — ^The rebels occupied this to"\vn yester- 
day ; " Alluding to the advance of Lee, Longstreet, and 
A. P. Hill, from Chambersburg to Gettysburg on Satur- 
day the 27th with 37,000 troops and 104 pieces of artil- 
lery — " should we be placed," he says, " with any fair 
show, you Avill hear a good report from the Michigan 
cavalry. * * * Our reception tlu*ough the country 
is generally joyful. There are some secesh, of com'se ; 
but they only dare to look som\" 

To keep as well as we can the connection of events, 
I would remark that on Tuesday, June 30, the rebels 
left York ; and on that day Gen. Pleasanton fought 
Lee's cavalry at Hanover, and defeated Stuart, who 
suffered great loss, in which engagement I conclude, 
from comparing dates, Major Perry participated. The 
two main armies were by this time so near each other 
that on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 1st, the ene- 
my in strong force attacked our advance near Gettysburg, 
under Reynolds, and were handsomely repulsed, though 
2 



18 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

not without severe loss to our forces. Since the date of 
the letter last quoted, the Michigan 5th seems to have 
withdrawn to Hanover, a town some few miles southeast 
of Gettysburg. A melancholy interest attaches itself to 
the letter from which we are now about to quote, not 
for any intrinsic importance, but because it is probably 
the veiy last which he penned. It was under an apple- 
tree, in an orchard near Hanover, on this same Wednes- 
day, July 1st — the day the battle was raging in Gettys- 
burg — that this letter, in pencil, was addressed to his 
" Dear Aunt Mary," to whose salutary influence he was 
much indebted. " To you," he says, " I should have 
written long ago ; but having been upon the drive for 
the last two weeks I have really had no opportunity so 
to do, at the length I wished ; and shall now have to 
scribble with a pencil. I, in the heading say ' Camp,' 
but our only shelter is a fine apple-tree, and our pouches 
spread on the grass to sit or lie upon. * * * Yes- 
terday " — that is June 30th, when Pleasanton fought 
Lee's cavalry — " the 5th Michigan had their first smell 
of battle near Littletown and behaved finely. Our loss 
was but one killed, while fifteen dead rebels lay in front 
of our line upon a single field. Had it not been for an 
order about 4 o'clock p. m., to retire to the position oc- 
cupied in the morning, I think we should have captured 
between one and two hundred rebels, whom we had 
nearly surrounded. Our part of the afiair was decidedly 
the most brilliant of the day. * * * We are or- 
dered off" again, and I must close wthout finishing." 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 19 

From this time, until he fell in battle near Gettys- 
burg, about 4 o'clock on Friday, July 3d, we have but 
meagre details. The testimony of Captain Duggan, of 
1st Michigan Cavalry, who was in the fight, is, " that he 
behaved gallantly, and was leading his battalion dis- 
mounted in a hand to hand struggle ; in which skirmish 
the 5th Michigan, with their rifles and sabres, did fear- 
ful execution upon the rebels." * 

Col. Alger says : " The 5th has won an enviable 
reputation. * * * Every moment brings a sad 
gloom over all our hearts for the noble Ferry. He was 
instantly killed whilst leading his battalion at Gettys- 
burg — shot through the head. I had his body brought 
in early next morning and buried. He was a brave 
officer. I cannot supply his place." 

Concerning the manner of his death, we have the 
following additional particulars through his brother-in- 
law, Mr. H. C. Hall, of New York, as obtained by him 
from the wounded in the hospitals at Philadelphia, " I 
have been," writes Mr. Hall, " to medical directors and 
hospitals ; and have treasured the knowledge obtained 
from those who were at his side before and at the time he 
received the fatal ball. The testimony of such a life is 



* It is since ascertained that this 5th cavalry were short of ammuni- 
tion ; having with them in the first onset but a limited amount, and 
their munition train far in rear. Messengers were sent to headquarters 
urging immediate supply. Yet this required time. And in such crip . 
pled state, though unflinching, their power could be but half effective, 
and ill cope with their enemy's force of two and a half brigades to 
their one. 



20 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

worth living for. Private Williams, now in hospital 
here, (Co. K) 5th Reg., says Major Ferry was shot in 
the head, while leading on his men. ' Just before we 
went into the skirmish, he went along the line, calm, 
happy, cheerful. He was the best officer we had ; and 
said, " Now, boys, if any of you are unwilling to go /o?-- 
ward''' (v^Q were expecting a battle), " you may stay 
here." Of course ,not one of us staid, with such an 
officer to lead us ; we advanced on foot (leaving our 
horses behind) through the wheat, he all the while cheer- 
ing, encouraging us on ; and with our battery in rear to 
overshell us, we pressed forward upon the enemy, forcing 
back their sharpshooters and battery. While thus en- 
gaged, a soldier was shot down by the Major's side ; he 
grasped the fallen soldier's musket, and with it, firing as 
he went, called us ''onward" till the fatal ball pierced 
his head, and he fell. 

" With our ammunition exhausted, we fell back, and 
the 1st and 7th filled our place — charged, and still drove 
the rebels till very late. During the night rebel prowl- 
ers stole their way, and pillaged everything they wanted 
and could find from the dead. They stripped the Ma- 
jor's body of everything but his coat ; and cut from this 
all the buttons and shoulder straps. By order of Colo- 
nel Alger, the heut.-colonel, with Captain Clark and a 
detail of twenty-five men, the next morning secured and 
buried the body beneath a tree, near Cavalry Head- 
quarters.' " * 

* Tlie coincidence may here be stated that at this very honr, July 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 21 

Others of the wounded in hospital testified as fol- 
lows. Said one : " The Major was always calm — went 
forward up through the wheat field encouraging his 
men. I saw when the ball hit him. It passed tlirough 
his head ; he was instantly killed. Oh ! the regiment 
could have lost any other man better than him." Says 
another : " Why, don't you recollect how he said to us, 
' Boys, if you don't choose to go into this fight you can 
stay here' ? " Another : " He was an officer better 
loved than any other. The men had a great deal of 
confidence in him. We always felt, if he took us into a 
tight place, he could get us out again. He knew just 
when and where to take us." 

Thus om^ townsman, Major Noah H. Perry, at the 
age of thirty-two, fighting, fell with his face to the foe, 
" cheering his comrades on." " If I go to war, I want 
to fight : if I go to play, I want to play," said he in a 
letter to his brother, February 13, 1863. In acknowl- 
edging the receipt of a brace of Prescott's silver-mounted 
pistols, of beautiful pattern, the gift of a fellow-citizen, 
he writes : " Articles that I must depend upon in the 
horn' of danger; weapons with which I must do my 
mite toward restoring to power in dissatisfied districts 
the best government upon the face of the earth. May 
they speak my thanks in a voice that shall be heard in 

4th, of Major Ferry's burial on the field of Gettysburg, an elder brother, 
Cap. William M. Ferry, jr., acting chief commissary, was accompanying 
General Grant in his triumphant entree into vanquished Vicksburg, and 
a younger brother, Edward P., was delivering an oration at White Kiver 
upon the grounds of the fallen Major's business interests. 



23 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

the ears of traitors." And they did ; for, says an eye- 
witness, " After the Major took the gun from the 
wounded boy, he pressed forward cheering, and doicned 
Ms man every time. I was near him — within a rail's 
length — and could hear every word he said. A soldier, 
shot down close by him, says, ' Major, I feel faint ; I 
am going to die.' The Major's sympathy prompted 
him to turn, and he said, * Oh, I guess not ; you are all 
right — only wounded in your arm.' Then glancing his 
eye along the line, he shouted, * JRally, hoys ! rally for 
the fence ! ' 

" These were his last words. Soon," says the wit- 
ness, " I was shot and fell, and as I turned over I saw 
the Major dead at my side." 

It is exceedingly gratifj'ing also to record the un- 
sought and spontaneous testimony of his brother officers 
to his bravery and worth, especially in view of that un- 
happy event which compelled him at one time to array 
himself in opposition to a superior, and to usurp for a 
while that power which properly did not belong to him. 
We have already given you the testimony of Col. Alger. 
We now add that of Major L. S, Trowbridge and Lieut.- 
Col. Litchfield. The former writes as follows, from 
which it wiU be seen that Major Ferry's valor had an 
important bearing upon the final result of the action : 
" And now, my dear sir " (the letter is addressed to a 
brother of the deceased), " although almost a stranger to 
me, may I not feel that we are draAvn into a closer, 
warmer sympathy by this sad bereavement ? You 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 23 

have lost a clear brother ; I a noble, affectionate, and 
generous friend ; our country a brave, devoted, and self- 
sacrificing defender. I cannot tell you the gloom which 
his death cast over us all. We are most reliably in- 
formed by captured officers that the vigorous defence of 
om- single brigade checked and prevented a flank move- 
ment of the enemy made by two and a half brigades, 
and had much to do with the glorious success achieved 
that day." 

In a letter dated July 9th, 1863, near Boonesboro*, 
A. C. Litchfield, Lieut.-Col. 7th Mich. Cavalry, after 
stating that within the two weeks the Michigan 5 th had 
been in eight as severe cavalry engagements as the 
country has known, writes : " You have doubtless heard 
that Noah's brave manhood gave way before the fiends 
who have so long striven to shroud every Northern 
home in mourning. ^ * * It was no chance shot 
that took his life, but the well directed aim of one of 
our common enemies. He died as a soldier should die, 
doing his whole duty fearlessly. All testify to his good 
soldierly qualities and uniform attention to his duties — 
fearing nothing, faltering never." * 

* The following extract is from General Custer's official report of 
August 22d, 1863 : 

"Colonel Alger, commanding the 5tli, assisted by Majors Trow- 
BBiDGE and Ferry, made such admirable disposition of their men behind 
fences and other defences, as enabled them to successfully repel the re- 
peated advance of a greatly superior force. ***** 

" Among the killed I regret to record the name of the brave and chiv- 
alric Major N. H. Ferry, of the 5th Michigan Cavalry, who fell while 
heroically cheering on his men." 



24 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

He fell, too, as he wislied to fall, instantly, and without 
undergoing the pain of a. lingering death upon the battle 
field. He has been heard repeatedly to express this as his 
preference, and always evinced a peculiar repugnance to 
being wounded and left to drag round tlu^ough life a mu- 
tilated body. In a letter, dated " Banks Barracks, De- 
troit, November 29th, 1862," penned just as he was upon 
the eve of leaving for Washington, and in which he touch- 
ingly remonstrates with his mother, who, at the risk of her 
health, was about making him a farewell visit, he says : 
" The trip would have to be a hurried one, and under 
the circumstances you might find it more than your 
health would endure. I bade you all good-by once, 
with a full expectation that it was to be the last ; and 
to see you again for a few moments in the hurry of de- 
parture would be only an aggravation. It will be but a 
short time that I shall be away : June will bring us all 
back. If by the accident of war I slioidd find my end 
upon the field — for I will not think it may be in the 
hospital — ^you will have the comfort of knomng that I 
have, by dying in such a cause, not lived in vain ; and 
that (I can tell it to yon) no impure motive had a voice 
in bringing me here ; nor is there in my history any- 
thing of which my friends need feel ashamed." 

Brave hero ! whom we emphatically call our own, 
we are not ashamed of thee — ^neither of thy hfe nor of 
thy death. " Single-eyed " in thy patriotism, thy 
" whole body was fidl of light." No less pure and 
noble wert thou in thine aspirations than heroic in thy 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 25 

deeds upon the field. Thou hast not hved nor died in 
vain. We, who throng this house — among whom there 
lui'ks no frigid Judas, unable to appreciate thy self- 
sacrificing love, to ask with malicious leer, " Why this 
waste ? "■ — will ever cherish thy sweet and precious 
memory. Its fragrance shall ever fill our hearts and 
our hearthstones. We will love our country henceforth 
more fervently than ever, because thou hast shed thy 
blood to maintain its integrity. And, though thine ear 
cannot hear it, for it is stopped, nor thine eye see it, for 
it is closed, we will to-day record on the page of history, 
based upon the testimony of those who so nobly sliared 
with thee the perils of the hour, and participate in its 
honors, the fact that, in that fierce encounter, thou didst 
have much to do with the glorious success achieved. 
Yes : when the invaders were repulsed in that awfid 
battle, and then driven from our soil, it may yet prove 
to have been the culminating point of the mighty strug- 
gle now raging between the antagonistic forces of Tree- 
dom and Despotism, in which thou didst nobly act thy 
part well. 

Had we indeed some word — some last utterance 
from his lips — before his spirit passed away, it would be 
gratifjdng; but though we have it not, Ave can well 
imagine what it would have been, if spoken. Like the 
dying Bayard, that " chevalier sans peur et sans 
reproche," addressed to the traitor Bourbon, he would 
have said, " Pity not me : I die as a man of honor ought, 
in the discharge of my duty. They are indeed objects 



26 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

of pity wlio fight against their king, their country, and 
their oath/ 

We have given you this detailed account of Major 
Ferry's few months' service, and these extracts from his 
correspondence, simply because we who knew his worth, 
and had formed, alas ! too confidently, it seems, such 
glowing expectations of his futm-e distinction, love now 
to treasure up his every word and act. 

You, fellow citizens, were not guilty of excessive 
adulation, when you resolved, at your meeting on 
Wednesday evening last, " that as a community who 
have known Major Ferry from his earliest youth, and 
have seen the gradual development of his character and 
powers, we momrn the sad event which has so suddenly 
snatched him from us, in the midst of his usefulness, as a 
deep affliction to us all ; but, in the midst of our sorrow, 
we also rejoice that the religious instructions of his early 
years have so borne appropriate fruit, that the life of 
Major Ferry was such an example of high integrity in 
his business relations, — of intelligent, seLf-sacrificing pa- 
triotism, — and of calm, determined, personal bravery in 
the defence of the right." 

Con'oborative of the above estimate of his character, 
— that you may know what he was at home that was he 
abroad, — I add the testimony of a prominent citizen of 
Detroit, who was thrown into frequent contact with him 
during a temporary sojourn at Washington. "To a 
firmly balanced mind, he added a well-instructed under- 
standing ; and was governed by well-established prin- 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 27 

ciples of right and justice. He was one of the few who 
lived in camp, and yet retained the purity and simpHcity 
of the family circle. He was maturing rapidly in every 
quality which made a noble man and a soldier. '"^ * * 
He was a most welcome guest at my house, and was 
beloved by all from the oldest to the yomigest ; and we 
feel that, though we may not have lost a brother or son, 
we have lost a friend much endeared to us by memories 
which bring tears and sorrow to our hearts." 

To you, the more especially bereaved, I find it com- 
paratively easy to address a word upon this occasion ; for 
I well know the strength of that patriotic devotion to coun- 
try which buoys you up mider this sore trial: I would have 
said, but that the expression might seem to some, not to 
you, to savor of harshness, that patriotic devotion which 
enables you almost to rejoice that it was in your power to 
lay so noble a sacrifice upon the altar of your country ! 
Yea ; I know the spirit that prompts you, the honored head 
of this family, to say, " Not one son, but all, if need be ; 
rather than that this unholy rebellion triumph. If my 
country must fall, welcome the annihilation of every tem- 
poral interest and the destruction of life itself : for I do 
not desire to sui-vive my country's ruin." Like one 
father, of whom I have heard, you paced off his grave 
before he went : like another, you said in your heart of 
yours as he said of his two : " Both my sons are in the 
army. I would at any time stand between them and 
death ; yet, when they yearned to respond to their coun- 
try's call, I said ' Go/ " And I know, too, the patriotic 



28 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

ardor tliat impels sister to bind on brother the warrior's 
sash, and bid him fill the vacant place in freedom's 
ranks ; aye ! and the well-chastened pioneer life that 
enables mother to say : 

" If my boy were less a hero — less a man in thought and deed, 
I had less to give my country in her trying hour of need ; 
And I feel a pride in knowing that, to serve this cause divine, 
From no hearthstone goes a braver heart than that which goes 
from mine. 

Your child, you, brother, went forth with a benedic- 
tion and a prayer. You hoped for his return ; but you 
are disappointed. He has fallen ; and thus are brought 
home realized the hazards of war. " Neither you nor 
any of us have good reason to look for exemption from 
the shafts of death sent by a cruel foe. The same God 
who suffers such treason and reckless rebellion for a time 
against all that is dear and priceless in our nation's weal, 
has a right to apportion our bitter cup therein." * But 
you may remember for yom^ consolation, besides the fact 
that your son was distinguished for his high-toned pat- 
riotism and upright walk, that he was no scoffer. He 
outwardly honored religion — revered the ministry of 
reconciliation — loved the sanctuary — and was often (I 
may say, as often as cu'cumstances allowed) seen in the 
social gathering for prayer. And though we may not speak 
of an open profession of religion which was never made, 
we cannot forget that he was a child of the covenant — a 

* Extract from a letter of Rev. "Wm. M. Feeet to his wife, while 
absent to recover the body of his son, dated Ilarrisburg, July 13, 1863. 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 29 

child of prayer ; and that we know not what may have 
been the exercises of his mind during the months that 
he was separated from home and friends, and necessa- 
rily brought to view as at any moment possible the sad 
contingency which has occurred. At the last interview 
between him and his brother T. W., near Fairfax Court 
House, June 6, the latter, aware of that native fearless- 
ness, which bordered even upon recklessness, took occa- 
sion to warn him against unnecessarily exposing a life 
valuable to himself, his friends, his command, and his 
country. He replied, expressing his readiness to risk 
all ; and gave it as his conviction that Vicksburg would 
soon fall, Lee be defeated, " and then," said he, " the 
exigencies of the public service no longer requiring my 
aid, I may honorably resign, and I shall be home in July." 
While, as you well know w^lio are accustomed to 
wait upon the ministrations of this pulpit, we are careful 
never to let fall an utterance that w^ould encourage the 
impenitent to procrastinate repentance in the delusive 
hope that peace may be made with God at the last mo- 
ment ; while it is a source of regret that Major Terry 
never openly avowed himself upon the Lord's side (al- 
though I know, from more than one personal conversa- 
tion with him, he inwardly craved the reality of re- 
ligion, and was unusually frank and manly in the ex- 
pression of his views), yet may it not be allowed us to 
express the hope that i?i July he is at home, in a higher 
and more exalted sense than that in which he used the 
word? Not that, if saved, he merited salvation by his 



30 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

devotion to his country ; but that he was saved as sinful 
man only can he, through the grace of God in our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

Sinner ! procrastinate not. Let his sudden death be 
to thee a warning. If his peace were not ah'eady made 
with God, what opportunity had he in that brief moment 
to commit his soul to Christ ? Plow true it is — be our 
probation longer or shorter — 

" A point of time — a moment's space 
Removes me to yon heavenly place, 
Or shuts me up in hell ! " 

Remember the sentiment which, by the very act of 
requesting the choir to learn the hymn in which it is ex- 
pressed, and which we have already sung, he endorsed 
as his own : 

" Only a pure and holy soul 
Hath tints that never fly : 
While flowers decay and seasons roll, 
It lives and cannot die, 
It lives and cannot die. 

Fellow Citizens : While our tears flow free and 
fast in view of our bereavement, it is eminently proper 
that we make this an occasion to rekindle the fires of 
patriotism ; and here around these sacred ashes to re- 
consecrate ourselves to our country. I say this the 
more freely because I know the sentiment finds an echo 
in the bosoms of those who sit with us as mourners ; for 
they feel that by as much as his self-sacrificing death 
fails to contribute to this glorious end, by so much that 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 31 

deatti has been in vain. Patriotism ! So much has the 
word been abused and made the cover of selfish aims 
and purposes, that some have actually become sceptical 
as to the real existence of such a virtue. Yet it does 
exist in all its pristine purity, and flourishes as lux- 
uriantly to-day as ever. 

To prove it, I will not go back to days of Grecian 
or of Roman heroism ; or even to the days of our revo- 
lutionary struggle, when such men as Joseph Warren, 
its first victim, fought and fell in freedom's holy cause. 
I only ask you to behold with vision clear and unob- 
scured by party film, what is and has been for the last 
two years transpiring around you ; and you will find as 
noble instances of true patriotism as ever adorned any 
era in our world's history. You have not forgotten (or 
if you have, coming generations never will) the heroism 
of that man, who early in the insurrection transformed 
the flag of his country into a comfortable, and kept it 
upon his bed until the time arrived, when at the risk of 
his life, he with his own hands hoisted it upon a staff, 
which had trembled with the fluttering of treason's ban- 
ner, and thus wrote : " My child, my loved one, and you 
my brothers and sisters, I am satisfied. I am now 
wiUing to go home to God. I am ready to lie down 
mth my fathers of the heroic age." 

Neither can you so soon have forgotten the heroism 
of that citizen of Charleston, S. G., of military and 
scientific attainments, who when tempted by promotion 
to enlist beneath the Confederate banner, responded : 



32 MEMORIAL or MAJOR FERRY. 

" You cannot buy my loyalty. I love Carolina and the 
South, but I love my .country better." Pmcling him 
faithful to the flag he loved, he was made to feel the 
power of his enemies. He was thrown into a miserable, 
damp, iU-ventilated cell, and fed on coarse fare ; his 
property confiscated, and his wife and children beg- 
gared. Poor man ! he sank beneath his troubles, and 
was soon removed from the persecution of his oppres- 
sors.* 

The day before his death he said to his wife : " Mary, 
you are beggared because I would not prove disloyal." 
" God be thanked for your fidelity," replied his wife. 
" They have taken your wealth and life, but could not 
stain your honor, and our children shall boast an un- 
spotted name. My husband, rejoice in your truth." 
She returned to her friends after his death, openly de- 
claring her proudest boast should be, '"'My husband 
died a martyr to his patriotism." 

" Tell my wife," said the dying Major Barnum, of 
New York 12th, "that in my last thoughts were blended 
my wife, my boy, and my flag." He asked of the phy- 
sician how the battle went? " God bless the fla — ! " 
and expired with the prayer finishing inaudibly with his 
closing lips. Who shall say that the age of heroism has 
passed ? The great struggle of the country, wliile it has 
revealed the baseness of many, from whom better things 
might have been expected, has also brought to light 
some of the grandest exhibitions of the pure love of 
country which the world has ever seen. Not a few of 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 33 

these have come from the common soldiers of the army 
(God bless them — " brave boys are they " !) — men who 
without the temptation of rank, gain, or power, have 
gone into the battle field from pure and lofty principle. 
In one case, as a female relative hung over a fearfully 
wounded and suffering soldier, she could not help ex- 
claiming, "Is it worth all this ? " The poor sufferer 
turned his eye full upon her and said, with marked em- 
phasis, " Yes — yes — it is worth it all ! " Said one who 
had extensively visited our hospitals : " I have never met 
with a soldier, sick or wounded, who regretted that he had 
gone into the war ; not one who used the coward's pleas, 
that he had endured enough for his country. Said an- 
other, possessed of equal opportunities for observation: 
" The ao-onies of the wounded in the retreat from the 
Chickahominy to the James can never be known. In the 
minds of those who witnessed some of their fearfid suffer- 
ings, the scenes will remain to the end of time. But not 
a man among all the sufferers was heard to upbraid his 
general or his Government. The univeral sentiment was, 
that had they a thousand lives they would all be freely 
tendered to the Union and the restoration of the laws." 

Says Wm. Jennison, Esq., one of the Detroit com- 
mittee appointed to look after the Michigan 24th, 
wounded in the recent battles, dated Hospital, Phila- 
delphia : " If any man desires to be healed of sympathy 
with traitors in arms, let him come into this pool of 
blood and wounds, and look at these brave, cheerful 
defenders of the Union, I have not heard a single mur- 



34 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

mur." Says Rev. Geo. Duffield, jr., engaged in a similar 
mission near Gettysburg : " Words cannot describe the 
fortitude of these men. It is as great as their courage. 
They are as great in suffering as in fighting." 
/• But these are instances which transpired in the 
distance, and of which we read. I appeal now to what 
your own eyes this day see, and what your own ears 
hear, and ask you, who knew Major Ferry and the per- 
sonal sacrifices he made to seiTe his country, as you 
gaze upon all that remains mortal of our own hero, what 
earthly motive ever prompted him to abandon the family 
circle, home endearments, fair business prospects and 
advantages, and to sacrifice his young and noble life, 
save a devoted attachment to his country, unexcelled in 
intensity, and depth, and pmity, by any who in ancient 
orin modern times have gone forth to battle ? I pause 
for a reply.* Oh ! in the sight of this brilliant exam- 
ple, dismiss all scepticism in regard to the reality and 

* The following extract is from an article in tlie " Oceana Times,' 
of July 23cl, wlierein Major Ferry's identical language on occasion of the 
Monday night war meeting is recalled : 

" But few are willing to make the sacrifice he made. Some of your 
readers will doubtless remember his remarks when called to the cap- 
taincy of our White Eiver Company. He said : ' I believe you have 
called me for some pxirpose, when you consider my circumstances, and 
the sacrifice I make ; but how great the sacrifice no one knows save 
myself and one or two others. But if you say go. I will go and stand 
by you to the last.' Has he not been true to his word ? Go ask the 
brave boys who have been under him; go ask them if, when they 
were about to be given into the hands of the enemy by a drunken officer, 
he did not virtually sacrifice his life for them ? Ask them if, when the 
enemy was dragging them as prisoners from the field, and other officers 
looked tremblingly on, he did not rally to their rescue ? "_ 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 35 

existence of true patriotism. Shall we, for whose sake, 
and for the sake of whose children he and over a thou- 
sand other citizens of Michigan have already made this 
sacrifice, be less steadfast in attachment to that country 
and those principles for which he bled and died ? 

" War, without doubt," says the distinguished French 
Professor Laboulaye, in reference to our great struggle, 
" War is a terrible scourge. Let it fall in malediction 
on those who have unchained it. But it is also true 
that it is a noble and holy thing to fight in defence of 
country, justice, and humanity. This the North is 
doing. This war could be arrested by the South with 
a single word. Let it but be content to be sovereign 
in its internal affairs, as it has been for eighty years. 
No one will outrage — no one will menace it. All that 
is asked of it is, not to dismember the country by a 
sacrilegious ambition, but to yield. The North cannot 
do this without dishonor." And we would add to the 
words of the eloquent Frenchman, We ought not to yield, 
nor talk of submission or of overtures of peace to traitors 
in arms, for we are rigid in this contest. 

It is a matter of devout thankfulness to Almighty 
God, that in this fearful struggle right and justice are 
upon our side. The war in which we are engaged is, 
upon our part, a holy war. For its successful prosecu- 
tion and favorable termination we can conscientiously 
labor and fervently pray, and say to our soldiers as they 
go forth to the fight : " Be valiant and quit yourselves 
Hke men." 



36 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

Yes ! We repeat it ; right and justice, beyond the 
shadow of a doubt, are- on our side ; and to know and 
feel this is half the battle. There should be no misgiv- 
ings in our hearts about the matter — none whatever. 
Without even a hngering suspicion of wrong we should 
say to our son, as he grasps the hilt of his sword, and to 
our brother as he straps on his knapsack — to our hus- 
band, as we imprint upon his cheek the farewell kiss — 
and, if it comes to this, which it never shall, while we 
young men have strength to wield a sabre — to our gray- 
haired father, as he shoidders his musket, like in times 
of yore, we should say to them, one and all, as they go 
forth to maintain this free Republican Government, 
founded by our forefathers, God be with you ! God 
speed you 1 

To allow, what may be the case, that some opposed 
to us are equally conscientious in their opposition, should 
not weaken for a moment our conviction that we are 
right. To allow this, is only to allow what is patent to 
the observation of all, viz. : that conscience is not infallible 
— that a conscientious man may do a wrong thing, and 
then be held responsible to God for having a wrong con- 
science, the result of not taking pains to make it right. 

In the exercise of that charity which the Bible re- 
quires, and which a knowledge of our own liability to be 
warped by interest and prejudice should lead us to ex- 
ercise toward others equally frail, we are willing to ad- 
mit that multitudes of our Southern brethern, laboring 
under misapprehension, and blinded by misguided 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 37 

teachings and zeal, may think they are doing right, when 
nevertheless they are doing wrong. " An erratic con. 
science can never make wrong right — a good intention 
cannot do it. If good intention justifies a wrong act, 
then the hottest persecutions with which the people of 
God have been tortured are legitimate and proper." 

But, while we make this just concession to the weak 
and ignorant, we shall allow no palliation to soften the 
severity of our censure in regard to the active and in- 
telligent leaders in this wicked conspiracy. Most con- 
fidently then do we appeal to the Eternal Judge to give 
success to our armed resistance of this murderous assault 
upon the life of the nation — of this atrocious attempt to 
revolutionize us backward to barbarism. Did not the 
Richmond " Examiner " say but recently, when jubilant 
at the thought of Lee's anticipated success in Pennsyl- 
vania, " The establishment of the Confederacy is verily a 
distinct reaction against the whole course of the mistaken 
civilization of the age." When we recollect that this is 
the avowed object of the Southern hordes that invade 
our soil — when we recall the words of the late Senator 
Douglass : " There is but one path of duty left to pa- 
triotic men. This is not a party question, nor a ques- 
tion involving partisan policy. It is simply a question 
of government or no government — country or no coun- 
try " — when we hear Lieut.-Col. Litchfield tell us, " It 

WAS NO CHANCE SHOT THAT TOOK THE LIFE OF OUR 
NoAH, BUT THE WELL-DIRECTED AIM OF ONE OF OUR 

COMMON ENEMIES " — feeling that while we have nothing 



38 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

to revenge, we have mucli to punish, we enter at once 
into the sphit of the imprecatory Psalm and say, " Keep 
not thou silence, God, hold not thy peace, and be not 
still, God : for, lo ! these enemies make a tumult, and 
they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have 
taken crafty counsel against thy people. They have said, 
Come and let us cast them off from being a nation, that 
the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance ; for 
they have consulted together, with one consent they are 
confederate against Thee, my God ! make them as a 
wheel and as stubble before the wind." 

My brethren ! If we are not right in this conflict, 
then I shall forever lose all faith in moral distinctions, 
and, launching . out upon the cheerless ocean of scepti- 
cism, henceforth deem it an utter impossibility, even with 
the light of God's word, to discriminate between truth 
and error, good and evil, light and darkness ; and con- 
fess at once my inability to form any right judgment 
in reference to those great historical events of the past, 
which, culminating in our American Revolution, gave to 
us the dearly prized privileges of national existence — 
national, civil, and religious liberty. 

But away, once for all, with the suspicions of doubt. 
We are right. The same moral constitution which tells 
the conspirators against our national life (though they 
strive ever so hard to muffle its voice), that it is wrong 
to steal, wrong to commit perjury, wrong to rise up 
causelessly in opposition to a wise and paternal govern- 
ment, like ours — teEs us to-day that, inasmuch as they 



OBITUARY DISCOURSE. 39 

leave us no other alternative, we are riglit to resist those 
usurpations of power, right to cripple them in all their 
material resources and property of all kinds, with a view 
to enforce submission to constituted authorities, right 
to go forth boldly and manfully to meet these our ene- 
mies — brothers we can hardly call them, since they have 
turned the assassin's steel against the mother that bore 
us — upon the field of battle, there " to nobly save or 
meanly lose the last best hope of earth ; " appealing to 
the God of battles and the judgment of the last day for 
the justice of our cause. 

In this just and holy war our brother has fallen ; and 
yet, dear as he is to us, and deeply as we feel his loss, 
in view of the momentous interests at stake in this as 
yet unfinished contest, we will, with God's help (though 
struggling human nature rebels), choke down our rising 
grief to-day — our minor sorrows all swallowed up in a 
deeper concern for our country in her hour of peril — not 
saying, in plaintive tones, as when we first began, 

" Unfurl our flag half mast to-day, 
In sorrow, 'mid the clang of war ; " 

but rather, in an elevated Christian patriotism, purified 
by its bloody baptisms, we v/ill shout aloud — 

" Then fling our flag mast high to-day, 
Triumphant 'mid the clang of war. 
And death to him who shall betray 
One single stripe or star." 



SUPPLEMEI^TAL 



The following articles appeared in tlie Grand 
Haven " Union" of July 23, 1863 : 

As announced in a part of our last week's issue^ the 
body of this gallant young officer reached Grand Haven at 
4 35 p. M., on Friday last. A number of our citizens, and 
a large deputation from White Eiver, went up to Grrand 
Rapids to meet and escort the venerable father and brother 
of the deceased, who were in charge of the remains. On 
the arrival of the train at the depot, the committee ap- 
pointed for that purpose took charge of the body, accom- 
panied by a large number of citizens. As the tug which 
conveyed the remains across the river left the wharf, a can- 
non, which had been planted on one of the sand hills ad- 
joining the village, boomed forth the sorrow that filled all 
hearts. A large concourse of people was assembled on the 
wharf to receive the body. In various parts of the village, 
as well as on the shipping in the harbor, flags were flying 
at half mast. On the wharf the metallic coffin was removed 
from the box, covered with the U. S. flag, and conveyed by 



42 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

bearers througti dense masses of citizens, including the 
children from the village schools, lining the way on either 
hand, to the house of Eev, William M. Feriiy, the father 
of the deceased Major. Here was a most touching scene. 
The venerable husband and father returning from his sad 
pilgrimage in search of the remains of his noble son, meets 
the stricken wife and mother and weeping family with those 
remains. But we draw the veil over sorrows too deep for 
utterance, and too sacred for the public eye. 

The funeral services were held at the First Presbyterian 
Church, on Saturday, at 11 o'clock. The church was 
crowded, and every individual seemed a mourner. 

An appropriate discourse was delivered by the Pastor, 
after which the choir sang, " Brave boys are they." And the 
large procession moved to the cemetery. When everything 
was prepared for the interment, and after some touching re- 
marks from the venerable father, in which sorrow for the 
lost and patriotic yearnings for his beloved country were 
sweetly blended, two brothers of the honored dead ivound a 
neio and heautifid National Flag around the coffin, while 
the choir sang that appropriate song : 

" Oh ! wrap the flag around me, boys, 
To die were far more sweet, 
"With freedom's starry emblem, boys. 

To be ray winding sheet. 
In life I loved to see it wave. 

And follow where it led, 
And now my eyes grow dim, my hands 
"Would clasp its last bright shred. 
Chorus. — Then wrap the flag around me, boys, 
To die were far more sweet. 
With freedom's starry emblem, boys. 
To be my winding sheet. 



MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 43 

" Oh ! I had thought to greet you, boys, 

On many a well won field, 
"When to our starry banner, boys, 

The traitorous foe should yield. 
But now, alas ! I am denied 

My dearest eartlily prayer ; 
You'll follow and you'll meet the foe. 

But I shall not be there. 

Chorus. — Yet wrap, &c. 

" But tho' my body moulder, boys, 

My spirit will be free. 
And every comrade's honor, boys, 

Will still be dear to me. 
Then in the thick and bloody fight, 

Ne'er let your ardor lag. 
For I'll be there still hovering near, 

Above the dear old flag." 

Chorus. — So wrap the flag, &c., &c. 

After tlie burial, the procession formed as before, and 
escorted tlie bereaved family to tlieir residence, and quietly 
dispersed. 



The death of Major Noah H. Ferry has already been 
announced in the columns of the "Union." It has also been 
mentioned, with some incidents of his life and character, in 
several of our exchanges. But all of these notices are de- 
ficient. The unobtrusiveness of Major Ferry's character 
was such that his sterling qualities were hardly appreciated, 
except by those who knew him best and most intimately. 
At our request his friends have furnished us with the ne- 



44 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 



cessary dates, and some incidents of his life for the purposes 
of this article. 

Noah Henry Ferry, the third son of Eev. Wm. M. and 
Mrs. Amanda W. Ferry, was born on the island of Mack- 
inaw, on the 30th day of April, 1831, and at the time of 
his death was therefore a little over 32 years of age. In 
the fall of 1834 his parents removed to Grand Haven, where 
his early years were spent. His primary education was 
under the immediate care of his aunt. Miss Mary A. 
White, now of Kockford seminary, Illinois, to whom so 
large a number of the youth of Grand Haven owe their 
education. 

He afterward graduated at Bell's Commercial College, 
in Chicago, where his clear intellect brought him into hon- 
orable notice, and he was chosen to take the charge of one 
of the departments of the college. At his graduation he 
took the highest honors of the institution. 

His religious education and early training to business 
habits at home, produced a resolute honesty of character ; 
and his indomitable energy of will insured his success in 
business. 

In 1854 he entered into business relations with his 
brother, at White River, thirty miles north of Grand Haven. 
Here he laid out the village of Ferrysville, and spent the 
remainder of his business life, maturing those qualities of 
intellect and heart, and that uprightness and business in- 
tegrity, which made him a universal favorite with all who 
made his acquaintance. Self-reliant, manly, and generous, 
kind, sympathizing, wholly above a mean thing, he uncon- 
sciously won an almost unlimited control over those around 
him, and in his employ. They trusted to his clear-sighted 
judgment implicitly. 



MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 45 

At the period when he gave himself to his country, his 
business had become so prosperous, as to be unincumbered, 
and having passed its crisis, was now in the full tide of suc- 
cess. He had only to pursue the even tenor of his way, 
with an ordinary blessing, to secure wealth. These facts 
are mentioned, because they go to show the unreserved de- 
votion of himself to his country. His patriotic determina- 
tion was nobly seconded by a prompt tender on the spot, 
where his company was raised, of the services of his young- 
est brother Edward P. Feert, whose pledge that every 
possible attention would be given to the management of his 
business affairs, has been most faithfully fulfilled. 

Among the earliest movements of his regiment was that 
in obedience to an order for a reconnoissance through the 
Blue Kidge at Ashby's Gaj), going up the Shenandoah to 
Manassas Gap, and back by way of Centreville, A letter 
detailing the circumstances now lies before us. A regard 
for the living forbids a full detail of the disgraceful proceed- 
ings of an officer then high in command. And yet, without 
such detail, it is impossible to understand the heroic deter- 
mination of Major Ferry, and his prompt readiness to 
sacrifice himself for the safety of the regiment. But we 
may state that the regiment was forty or fifty miles in an 
enemy's country, with scouts upon the hills around them, 
watching and reporting their movements. The delay 
occasioned by the cause before mentioned, had given the 
enemy time to collect his forces. The regiment was within 
two miles of the headquarters of the rebel Gen. Moseby, 
the condition of the commanding officer such as utterly to 
disqualify him, and neither lieut. -colonel nor senior major 
was willing to assume command. This occasioned doubt- 
ing and hesitation and dangerous delay in the face of the 



46 MEMORIAL OF MAJOR FERRY. 

enemy, when celerity of movement only could save them. 
In this crisis, while the safety of the regiment trembled in 
the balance, our hero, sustained in the act hy his tioo senior 
officers and the captains of the different comj^anies, nobly 
stood forth, arrested the movements of his commanding 
officer, countermanded his orders, forced him into an ambu- 
lance, countermarched the regiment, and took it in triumph 
back to Washington. 

He very well knew that in this he encountered the risk 
of being charged with mutiny in resisting a superior officer, 
the punishment of which is disgraceful dismissal, or even 
death. In the face of this, to save the regiment, like Jack- 
son he " took the responsibility." No truer test of heroism 
can be adduced. It is pleasant to know that when the cir- 
cumstances became known, he was not only fully sustained 
but warmly commended by those high in office, and al- 
though indirectly approached by several, with reference to 
a full command of the regiment, he firmly refused to avail 
himself of any such means to secure promotion, express- 
ing a confidence and a willingness to serve under either of 
his two superior officers. 

But our limits forbid enlargement. We have already 
written more than we intended, but knew not how to stop. 
He died as he desired, if he must fall, in the discharge of his 
duty, and at the head of his men. Major Ferry was our 
representative in the army. He belonged to us. He was 
one of us. His pecuniary interests were elsewhere. Yet 
his home and his attachments were here. We mourn the 
noble dead as our own son, and brother, and friend. We 
mingle our tears with those of his afflicted relatives, that 
one so good, so prudent, with such daring, such decision, 
and Buch promise of usefulness, should fall so soon. 







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